Walking the Worthy Walk: Called to be Blameless

Posted on by

Ephesians 4:17-32; 5:1–2.

Again, how is God’s exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all power express itself concretely in the church? How is the manifold wisdom of God displayed in the church? The first expression is Christian unity. The second expression is a transformed life.

Paul emphasizes the relationship with the way we think and the way we act (4:17, 18, 20, 23). Messed up minds lead to messed up lives. Ignorance leads to hardness in the heart. But the world never calls this ignorance, NO! they claim to be enlightened. Being soft on sin is never enlightened. This ongoing battle with sin is over our hearts and our minds. That list includes:

  • 17 Futility of their minds; pointless thinking
  • 18 Darkened in their understanding
  • 18 Disconnected from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart
  • 19 Lost sensitivity (any sense of right or wrong), abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice impurity
  • 20 Contrary to learning about Christ
  • 22–23 Therefore, renew the spirits of your minds

The new life involves transformed lives. Paul goes back and forth between “not this,” but “this.” [“Put off” and “put on”]. In other words, “Get rid of it.” Not only must we sweep out the one demon, but we must also furnish the house with the Spirit and the way of the Spirit so that seven demons do not return. Immorality is the absence of certain positive qualities in your life. Purity of life comes not by just quitting sin, but by being transformed in God’s image.

But v. 24, “clothe yourselves with a new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Theosis). Do not have a relapse into a spiritual condition once you have been redeemed from it. The basis for ethical behavior is found in 4:25b “(῾ινα) for we are all members of one body.” This behavior is rooted in our calling as the Israel of God, the body of Christ, the church. God’s community behaves in certain ways. How goes the battle in your struggle against sin? The list goes on …

  • 25 Putting away falsehood//speak truth to our neighbors for we are members of one another
  • 26 Angry within boundaries
  • 28 Theft//labor with your hands in order to share with the needy
  • 29 No foul words or evil talk//but only what is useful for building up one another —words of grace.
  • 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
  • 31 Bitterness and losing your temper, anger, wrangling, slander, malice
  • 32 Kindness, tenderhearted, forgiving one another (Lord’s Prayer)

Instead, 5:1–2, Be Imitators of God (Theosis) because of Kenosis. It is not that kenosis leads to theosis, but kenosis is theosis. God’s sacrifice displayed in Jesus’ death on the cross is the essence of God’s being from beginning to end, eternity to eternity.